Virus and Malware

Have you or someone else who uses the computer downloaded any applications, music, or video ? These all can contain a variety of malware.

Do you have active anti-virus software? Most computers that come with Windows installed only have a demo copy of an anti-virus program  that usually expires after 30,60 or90 days. After that, your computer is unprotected! We recommend to our clients that they use Kaspersky AntiVirus, and we also use it on any of our Windows computers. It works, it's unobtrusive,and because it's not the market leader, hackers are less likely to target their viruses at defeating it. That's right, for anti-virus software, popularity can be a bad thing. But we can't overemphasize this, if you're going to run Windows, get some sort of current anti-virus software running on your computer now! Linux and Mac OS X usually don't need to worry about antivirus software. This is partly because their default security is a little bit better than Windows, but mostly because they just aren't targeted by virus authors because they don't have the market share that Windows does.

RAM  

Did you go cheap and not buy the maximum amount of RAM possible? RAM, the memory in your computer, is the most cost effective way to maximize your computer's usable life. A little computer jargon: a program is a piece of software sitting on your hard drive. A process is when you take that program and run it. All processes needs RAM to run, and if you have two or three programs running at the same time, plus all the flashy effects for your desktop turned on, all  those various processes   are competing for RAM to run in. If there's not enough RAM to go around, then they take turns using the RAM that is there. All the processes that are waiting for a turn are kept on your hard drive in a sort of freeze frame action shot. The problem comes when the computer has to constantly swap one process in from the hard drive, which is really slow compared to the RAM, and another one out to the hard drive. This is known as thrashing  , and it can turn an otherwise peppy computer into a useless pile of metal and semiconductor while it's happening. The way to avoid this is simply to provide enough RAM for the programs you will typically run. Memory is fairly cheap, so usually it's best to install the maximum amount of RAM you can.

 Defragmentaion

Your computer generally doesn't write files to the hard drive as one continuous band of data. Instead, it writes it in bits and pieces all over the hard drive, and then marks where the bits and pieces start and end. The problem with this is that reading the file requires the hard drive to read the first piece, note where the next piece is, wait for it to come around again as the disk spins, read the next piece, and so on. All that waiting takes time, so to increase performance Windows comes with software to reorganize those bits and pieces, those fragments, into groups that are closer together on the disk so that you can read a fragment, read another fragment, in rapid succession with waiting a full disk revolution. It's a lot like reorganizing your closet, except you have to do that by hand. If you are using XP you just have to go to My Computer, choose the partition and under Tools choose Defragment.   It should tell you wether defragmenting the drive is a good idea or not. Usually it helps.

Age

Sometimes your computer is just too old to run the software you want to run.  As time goes by, software packages get bigger and more complicated, designed to be run on the current generation of computer hardware. If you're happy with what your computer does, don't change it! You're not required to keep up with the neighbors or anybody else. Your computer is a tool designed to do the work you want it to do. If it furfills that function, why mess with success? Now, about that AMC Pacer you're driving around...